For this post I will be talking about “The Day after the Wedding, from Undine” Pages 101 to 106 in the Penguin Book.
In the section in the Penguin book for the story Undine, the beginning text before we start reading the story makes sure to emphasize her role as a “water princess” and within the story itself how she alludes to being a “water spirit”. Rather than simply a mermaid. This to me highlights a deeper connection between Undine and nature, that she represents the element of water itself, embodying the bodies of water on the Earth (the oceans, lakes, rivers, etc). The story’s conclusion where we’re told after Huldbrands death, and after his love drifted to someone else (a more mortal or human person), Undine transforms into a body of water surrounding his grave. I saw this and their marriage as humanity’s bond with nature, as there is a saying how we return to nature after death. This made me think about how, in the context of these stories, humanity was much closer to nature, both literally and spiritually in the past, a point our professor made in class.
During the section where Undine talks about other spirits like herself, she says, “that there are beings in the elements which almost appear like mortals, and which rarely allow themselves to become visible to your race,” tells how nature—like Undine herself—is often only partially visible and understood. Showing how humanity is already, even around this time, separating themselves from nature in a way that didn’t necessarily break their bond. But in a way that lessened their understanding/outlook. As when Undine explained this to Huldbrand, “The knight tried to persuade himself that his beautiful wife was under the spell of one of her strange humours, and that she was taking pleasure in teazing him with one of her extravagant inventions. But repeatedly as he said this to himself, he could not believe it for a moment”, this quote shows he doesn’t believe her. Rather only focusing on her beauty.
Struggled a lot to put this into words, so I hope this makes sense.
It certainly makes sense, it makes good sense! I’m glad you’re looking to the story to question how it depicts man’s relationship to the environment…. And you were right to see it in a midst of change. Let’s start here tomorrow, and I hope you will leave the discussion.!
Hi Bryan, that’s certainly an interesting way of thinking about embodiments of nature. Nature is all around us, yet we only have a limited understanding of it since so much of it is happening under our radar. I’d agree with you on humans having a closer bond with nature in the past; nowadays, since we have to build cities to accomodate the rising world population, we are cutting down trees and polluting oceans, ruining nature’s gifts. As a result, we are severing our bond with nature even if we didn’t have a choice.
Hi Bryan,
I absolutely loved reading your post. What you said about, “Undine transforms into a body of water surrounding his grave. I saw this and their marriage as humanity’s bond with nature, as there is a saying how we return to nature after death”, this was a great take. Beyond that, I found it interesting that the water princess had asked Huldbrand to carry her at one point through a body of water as she shares the details of who she is to him. In a way she surrenders to human ways, in this case the human being Huldbrand, and expresses her love to him in this way. While once he dies, she’s the one separating him from others of his kind with the body of water she surrounds him with, as you had mentioned within your post. Thank you for sharing!